Because of the snowstorm, I was home for the past week, most of the time sitting and on the computer instead of the usual walking I do. My lower back had been bothering me 2 weeks ago but was fine when the storm came. It started hurting again but 2 days ago I developed this new symptom. It feels like a cell phone is vibrating in my crotch. It has a rhythmic pattern sometimes, like 1 second on, 1 second off and at other times more irregular and sometimes constant. It doesn't hurt.

I googled this to death and it seems that it's from the lower back pressing on a nerve. My doctor told me to take Advil or Aleve. I know this is all against Sarno...I have every book, I have Schubiner and I believe that stress brought on the back pain but am freaking out over the vibrating, thinking it's some permanent neurological thing. Since back pain is so prevalent with the people on this board, can anyone tell me if they have ever had this vibrating feeling? It's not pins and needles like I've gotten when I sleep on my arm, or when the sciatica goes to my toes..it's exactly like if you put a cell phone vibrating on your body and it's maddening. Thank you.

are you looking into the feelings behind the symptoms? I cannot imagine Advil being effective, it is an anti-inflammatory. Inflammation generally comes from infection. If you do not have an infection it is probably not going to help. I am a nurse and have found that even narcotics can be useless with pain that comes from anxiety.

My healing remedies: distraction (deep breathing, centering, music, reading, movies), being in the present and reminding myself I have no problems at this very moment (I find Eckhart Tolle's writings tremendously helpful), gentle exercise and combined with the aforementioned techniques. When all else fails I tell myself it will go away and I do not take it very seriously. Two weeks into my TMS recovery I am seeing amazing results.

If something is stressing you out, you either can or cannot do something about it. Figure out which one it is and do it or don't, but stressing about it never fixes anything.

Thanks for your replies. I do know the feelings behind the symptoms and am really trying to resolve this. But I am the kind of person who wants to know the physiological, structural reason for things. Feelings may have caused my back pain but what is going on inside that's causing this vibration? Something is probably being compressed, and something is contracting in a rhythm. I don't know if I can think this one away. I do have health anxiety since childhood and I start thinking of the degenerative diseases. The vibration stops for a while and I forget and it comes back and I get scared again. I know what Sarno thinks but what harm can it do to get rid of it if stretching and the things I see that release the pressure will help me?

I still am hoping someone will see this and tell me they have had it. Even though I see hundreds of people on the medical websites describing it the same way, nobody ever returns to say what their doctor said. I guess some people get better and forget about those still suffering with fear. This is a stressful time of year and I know my schedule has been too much to handle and that's when my back started hurting.

I understand about your vibrating symptom. I have it too every great now and then for years now. It can last most of the day and maybe some of the next. I consider this one of my strangest symptoms.

I remember feeling it after I've driven for a long time or sometimes from doing nothing different at all. It involves my lower pelvic area and sometimes the tops of my legs.

Since discovering Dr. Sarno's information due to searching for answers to my back pain I think I know what the physical aspect of it is. He talks of back pain being due to muscle spasms and now he includes nerve involvement as well. For instance nerve spasms. But not painful nerve spasms as this is not painful or numbing just a vibration.

This is what it seems like to me. And at the time of this vibrating feeling I am feeling tense to different degrees. Sometimes I'm just feeling overwhelmed by emotions that have obvious causes. Like I'm fearful of long drives and driving over bridges. But sometimes nothing very obvious is happening to cause this except my long standing anxiety and some of the unhappy leftovers from childhood that Dr. Sarno talks about. I also understand him to say that when unconscious emotions that we have no control over start to become too strong and threaten to erupt into consciousness the brain will cause a body symptom to distact the conscious mind from experiencing this.

Maybe this time this happened to you is because you were more tense than you thought about the impending snow storm and all the problems it could cause. I know that when a huricane is looming I get really tense. But obvious causes don't really matter anyway. And we don't have to change ourselves or our emotional habits or our personalities to stop these symptoms. We just have to acknowledge and accept the real cause of it all just as Dr. S explains.

When I get a new symptom and after going to the doctor and researching it to pieces it has always come down to "darn, my mind tricked me again!" So I do what is suggested in the books and it may take a minute, a day or a few weeks but my unconscious mind finally gets the message and it stops.

A final thought, I have also momentarily felt the vibration in my inner ear. Sometimes the right and sometimes the left one. Weird but not painful. And also if the pelvic (including groin) vibration was due to a compressed nerve in my back then I should still have excruciating pain from my almost degenerated disc between L4 and L5. The disc is hardly visible on xray BUT my back is fine now. I really hope what I've written helps you in some way.

quote:But I am the kind of person who wants to know the physiological, structural reason for things.

An important distinction that I have made since getting immersed in TMS and understanding the difference between what the mental health community will tell you about symptoms and what the TMS version, is this: mental health professionals will tell you that the symptoms are "in your head" and not real; TMS advises that the symptoms are real and caused by the autonomic nervous system in your head.

Short of it: you groin, leg, arm, head, what-have-you may very well be vibrating, but it is being told to do so by your mind. Same as when muscles hurt from lack of blood oxygenation.

I've had the vibrating leg, the bolts of pain in the leg, and now when I think of it, I even had the vibrating groin and lower back. That was my first panic and anxiety attack as a young man.

quote:Even though I see hundreds of people on the medical websites describing it the same way, nobody ever returns to say what their doctor said.

Most do return to these type of forums and report that a cause could not be found after multiple tests, or that their doctor told them it was only "anxiety". I've seen it many times searching for symptoms.

I have a weird problem that still bother me. It involves a pain and aching in my abdomen that reaches around to my back. I found a forum on this with sixty pages. People did all types of tests; nothing was ever conclusive. One lady actually did return to the forum after her mystery side problem was cured. She was told it was anxiety by a doctor that practiced holistic medicine. When I read through this forum not long ago I noticed many signs of anxiety and health anxiety and placebo cures that lasted a short time. Some people even had gallbladders removed to no avail.

Wow, you guys are terrific. I know for me, the impending storm did make me crazy. I walk a lot for my job and have a big fear of falling on the ice. Turns out I worked very little because nobody went to work during last week's blizzard...and that's when I sat here playing computer all day and my back started hurting.

I understand what you are both saying, Actually my dr. told me this area that I mention is the one affected by L4. So physiologically, I have my answer. It hasn't acted up much today, just faintly for a second here and there. For whatever it's worth, I got on my mat last night and did stretches of certain muscles and again this morning. Maybe that helped. I know anxiety plays a part in so much of my pain. I was diagnosed with fibro many years ago...was in a relationship with a man who was very bossy. The day I told him goodbye was the day the pain disappeared. This was not minor pain, I could not get a t-shirt off, the simple act of crossing our arms that we take for granted, automatic, it hurt like heck. I had to do it, had no help but ouch...and then like magic, gone! Darn stress! Well, happy new year to everyone and thanks again. I hope I won't be singing The Beach Boys, "Good Vibrations" much longer :-)

I have had similar symptoms in the past intermittently for days at a time. I used to think my cell phone was vibrating in my pocket only to find that it was not. I never got it checked out but I had many other symptoms that were of greater concern at the time. I believe the vibrating may have been one of a number of TMS symptoms I was experiencing. I haven't had it for a while and when it does show up from time to time I just ignore it and it subsides. I used to wonder if it was gastrointestinal symptoms but it wasn't quite the same as obvious gastrointestinal upset, when I have experienced that.

One more thing, I, like you have had a history of pouring over the internet trying to make sense of my symptoms. In hindsight, I have found this usually makes me more focused on and more anxious about the symptoms. I have been trying very hard not do that when I feel something bothering me as it for the most part is counterproductive for me. I understand the need to know and it is hard not to have clarity about symptoms. However, I have found through my own and others' testimonies, that often doctors don't have clarity on the symptoms either. Sounds like you are feeling pretty OK with what is going on know from the feedback you have gotten here. Good luck.

Thanks to all, thanks forfeet. I actually had an MRI a few days ago and it showed a herniated disc between L3 and L4 which my dr. says explains the radiation to that nerve. The vibrations have lessened but I am not so focused on it anymore. At least the MRI ruled out tumors, etc. and it showed normal degeneration for someone my age.

I google things for reassurance but often it has the opposite effect when I read horror stories.

It feels like a cell phone is vibrating in my crotch. It has a rhythmic pattern sometimes, like 1 second on, 1 second off and at other times more irregular and sometimes constant. It doesn't hurt.

I know some women that would kill for this symptom

I think it's called "Tickle Myosotis Syndrome" actually

seriously though, my right illiotibal band (sp?)(it goes from the side of the thigh from the outer hip to the knee) does this exact symptom from time to time, and really freaked me out at first. Havent had it in while now that I think about it.

Also, my inner crotch area right below testes would twitch alot when I layed down on my back. That would freak me out, and made me think I had Cauda Equina. Also havent had that in a while.